COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : USC : Walters Having Sweet Dreams

USC tailback Shawn Walters takes his daily nap on the floor of Heritage Hall, where he sleeps on a red carpet between two Heisman Trophies.

Does Walters, who figures to start for the Trojans in their season-opener against Washington, dream of winning the Heisman?

“Every running back here dreams of that,” Walters said. “But I’m just basically thinking about what’s going on for the next practice.”

Walters, who rushed for a team-high 711 yards and scored seven touchdowns last season, said he reported for practice in the best shape of his career. Walters, who played at 225 pounds last season, lost seven pounds.

“I did a lot of running over the summer,” he said. “I ran a lot of hills and I ran on the beach. The year before last I didn’t really do anything during the summer, but this year I worked out a lot harder during the summer.”

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Tailback Leonard Green, who had missed several days of practice with a hamstring injury, reinjured his right hamstring Wednesday and was driven off the field on a golf cart. . . . Guard Richard Beatie and linebacker Isreal Ifeanyi got into a minor scuffle during practice. However, they were quickly pulled apart and no punches were thrown. “It’s getting late into camp and people get tired and tempers flare,” Beatie said. . . . USC, which has practiced twice a day since the start of camp, will practice only once today because players have to move out of the dorm where they’ve been housed. . . .

The atmosphere at practice seems more relaxed under Coach John Robinson than under Larry Smith. Fans, who were banned from the field during Smith’s six-year regime, are allowed to watch practice from both sides of the field. . . . The Trojans are sharing their practice fields with the women’s soccer team, which played and practiced at Cal Tech last year. When the football team practices at Dedeaux Field, the women’s soccer team uses Howard Jones Field. The teams swap fields in the afternoon.